Sleep Deprivation Affects Teens At Arrowhead High School

Sleep energizes the brain and refuels it to be equipped for any task at hand. During sleep, important body functions and brain activity occur. Skipping or missing the necessary hours of sleep can be harmful for young teenagers. Students may look and feel drowsy, they may feel moody, or perform poorly. Sleepiness can make it hard to get along with family and friends and can potentially hurt students scores on school exams, on the court or on the field.

An overwhelming majority of high school students at Arrowhead High School are not getting enough sleep. They come to school early, spend hours listening to teachers and taking tests, then go off to practices and meetings, and come home to be faced with even more work. The National Sleep Association states that teenagers require around nine hours of sleep, and are simply not getting this much needed rest.

The National Sleep Association also implies that sleep deprivation and homework increases the likelihood teens will suffer negative consequences, including an inability to concentrate, poor grades, drowsy driving incidents, anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide and even suicide attempts.

“I am aware I don’t get the same amount of homework than everyone else. I, and people in similar classes to mine, get a lot of homework. With or without a study hall, homework takes me personally about four hours. Homework greatly affects my sleep because, either after work or after soccer practice, I have many subjects of homework to finish. With the emphasis teachers put on homework and the fact of its personal benefit, I always want to finish homework for when it is due. Therefore I usually stay up no matter how long to finish it. Sometimes past midnight. I have no recommendation  because I know teachers are not going to lessen the amount of homework and my schedule of homework, soccer, and work is too important to cut back on any of them. Homework always comes first and I have come to accept that issue,” Savannah Julius, a junior said.

On the other hand, other students feel as though young people need to be more aware of what they are getting themselves into class wise, along with school work.  

Jackson Calhoun, a senior at Arrowhead High School said, “I think that students need to be more mindful of the amount of work they choose to take on. Students nowadays have a wide variety of difficulty they can choose from in regards to difficulty and homework load. Even when they don’t choose the most difficult classes, they could still have a tough time with managing the work they’re given. The class load isn’t a major problem because it’s good preparation for college. Kids need to be mindful of what they’re getting into and what’s expected of them in college and in the real world. That’s what teachers should focus on. Proper study and time management skills with each subject.”